The Rich and the Poor
by Phil929
Summary: Ryan’s thoughts as he prepares breakfast for the Cohens at the end of the Pilot.


Food

Ryan rummaged through the cabinets, searching for the supplies that he needed. He was trying to keep himself distracted. He couldn't think about going back there- it was too painful. His mom had kicked him out. She had made it very clear that she didn't want him there.

Why did he have to be such an idiot and screw his one chance up? This Sandy guy could really help him and now he'd ruined it.

He couldn't bear going back to that place. He couldn't bear the thought of having to go in and grovel his way into his home in order for somewhere to sleep that wasn't the street.

Trey was in jail, Theresa had got back together with Eddy. He had no one.

He hadn't ever really believed people had lived like the Cohens did. He'd seen it on TV a couple of times, or the news. He just had never been able to see past his life in Chino. He hadn't been able to see past the violent men or the cocaine sniffing mothers.

He'd known that Mr Cohen was rich from the expensive suit that he had been wearing but the wealth of his family was unbelievable. His son even had his own boat! Not that Ryan wanted a boat, the sailing earlier had been one of the most stomach turning things he had done in his life so far. It just seemed a little unfair to him that some families have enough money for those sorts of luxuries and yet his barely had enough money for a new pair of sneakers.

He was fifteen, three years off of eighteen. He just had to survive that hell hole for three more years. Trey had managed it. Although, Trey had left when he was sixteen but he didn't think he could do that.

He loved his mom, he really did but there were times when he wanted to just shake her. Shake her to make her remember he was still living with her and needed some food for dinner.

He had no idea what he would do when he was eighteen though. When Trey had first left home, he had managed to hand off a stolen car that Arturo had supplied for him in order to afford rent at some sleazy apartment somewhere. He couldn't do that though. Stealing the first car had been bad enough.

He'd literally been shaking in his seat when the police had stopped them. He had even noticed Trey was shaking and he was used to being arrested.

So, he couldn't leave for three years, he had nowhere else to go except his mother's and her abusive boyfriend's house, he no longer had an amazing lawyer on his side.

Yep, he was officially screwed.

He grabbed the bacon out of the freezer and began to prepare it. The least he could do was make breakfast for the family. They had done so much for him.

If it wasn't for Mr Cohen he would be in juvy right now. The guys in there had been no joke. They were all young, cooped up and bored. A bad combination in any situation but they particularly liked fresh meat.

He didn't think he'd be able to last more than a few days in there. How his dad and Trey were coping he didn't know. Although, knowing his dad he was probably the leader of the pack that ran riot.

He opened the cupboard looking for some oil to use in the pan and took a double take at the amount of food.

There was everything that you could dream of; every type of cereal he had ever heard of, boxes and boxes of biscuits, packaged bread galore… He'd never seen so much food in his life except maybe in the supermarket.

His eyes widened at all the different brand names. God, how could a family of three eat this much?

Seth had told them that they got take out most evenings but then why would they need all this stuff? Surely by the time they finished one box of biscuits, the next box would have gone off.

He laughed softly. Wow, how he wished he could be rich. He couldn't help himself from taking a quick peep in the fridge as well.

It was crowded with ham, cheese, milk. His eyebrows rose slightly.

He marvelled at how thin Seth was, if he had this much food in his house he'd gobble it all up and get fat. None of the Cohen's were remotely fat.

He quickly shut the fridge when he heard voices from outside the front door. Sandy had obviously come home and Kirsten was going out to tell him what had happened the previous night.

He hadn't meant for Seth to get involved in the fight. He'd just known how it felt to be picked upon and couldn't watch the son of the one man that had shown him kindness get beaten up.

Mr and Mrs Cohen obviously didn't know Seth was being bullied. It wasn't quite the level of bullying that he was accustomed too in Chino but Seth certainly didn't deserve it.

He couldn't help to notice just how happy Seth had looked when they'd returned to the pool house after Ryan had protected him.

It made Ryan wish that he'd had someone to protect him. Someone who could have looked out for him and scared away all the bullies in his life. Trey had tried to protect him but he sometimes was the reason of the bullying because he'd wind the bullies up.

He heard the front door open and quickly slammed the door of the fridge and went back to supervising the bacon.

He began to regret his choice of fixing the Cohen's breakfast. Mrs Cohen obviously felt uncomfortable around him and so she probably didn't want him looking around in her kitchen cupboards.

He pondered about quickly throwing it away, they had enough food as it was, they probably wouldn't even notice but coming from a family that didn't get enough food, he decided to suck it up anyway.

He was going to have to leave anyway.

He looked up as Mrs Cohen entered the room.

"Look Ryan, I don't mean to play bad cop…"

He didn't want to listen as she kicked him out. It had been hard enough the first time his mother had done it. Silently in his head he began to plan how he was going to talk his way back into his home with AJ and his mom.

The End


End file.
